In addition to plague and cholera, Covid-19 has been on the list of contagious infectious diseases since October 1st. The virus disease is removed from this a week later so that students, teachers and educators are not subject to the test requirement.
Corona is again removed from a list of particularly contagious infectious diseases in the Infection Protection Act, for which an entry ban applies, for example in schools or daycare centers. That was decided by the Federal Council in Berlin. Covid-19 was only recently added to this list when the new corona rules that came into force on October 1st were passed. There are also the plague, cholera, scabies, measles, rubella and whooping cough. The legal consequence would have been that teachers, educators, students or day-care center children would only be allowed to return to the facility with a negative test if they suspected a corona infection or after a corona disease.
Pediatricians and several federal states had criticized this and described it as disadvantages compared to adults, since after five days of isolation they are allowed to participate in public life again without a test and even if they suspect corona, such as a cough, they cannot prove anyone with a test that it is not about Corona. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach promised in September to remove the controversial regulation from the Infection Protection Act. The state chamber has now finally approved this.
At the same time, the state ministers of education assured that the schools would not be closed in the coming months, even in the event of a possible gas shortage. They are also committed to ensuring that the facilities are sufficiently heated. "Schools will definitely remain open this autumn and winter, even in the energy crisis," said the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) and Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education, Karin Prien, on the sidelines of the consultations with her colleagues from the federal states. You owe that to the students after two and a half years of the pandemic. Wherever possible, schools should make a contribution to saving energy. "But that expressly does not apply to lowering the temperature as in other areas. Children must not be allowed to freeze in schools," added the CDU politician.
Hamburg's social-democratic school senator, Ties Rabe, said that there would be a lot of pressure to ensure that school authorities, local authorities, the federal government and the federal states worked together to ensure that students did not freeze in class, but could learn well.
The ministers also discussed the integration of the now more than 193,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren in Germany and how to deal with Corona this school year. Referring to study results that had shown declining skills among primary school students, Rabe said that one had to ensure "that the schools are never closed again". School closures and alternating lessons should no longer be part of the Corona security measures.
(This article was first published on Friday, October 07, 2022.)
